As the school holidays draw to a close I’d like to reflect on my short time at Sands School on the edge of Dartmoor.
It was a week after the end of summer term 2021 and I had just finished my first year as an NQT. The school I had been working at teaching geography, history, RE AND biology didn’t want to renew my contract. I had experienced an implicit, low level conflict with the deputy head / behaviour Tsar …
…top-button-no-white-socks-tuck-your-shirts-in-makes-better-citizens kind of BS.
A friend, who had been an absolute star as a TA in my year 7 geography classes, posted a response to my call out for a job on facebook.
“Why don’t you contact Sands school. It would really suit you’re teaching style”.
I had never heard of Sands, I did a little research and sent them an email. Its timing was perfect. Co-founder and humanities teacher Sean Bellamy, was looking to lighten his workload by employing a second humanities teacher. I went for an informal interview with Sean, far-more-than-just-an-administrator Donald and two students. It was a beautiful day and the students took me on a tour of the house. Graffiti on the walls, bean bags scattered in classrooms, a music studio. I loved it! It seemed idyllic, this would not be a usual everyday kind of workplace. And when asked one of the standard Sands questions that all new students and staff are asked — cats or dogs…? I of course answered cats.
Sean and Donald assured me that it was an advantage being new to teaching as it can be difficult to break out of the rigid structures of mainstream schooling. I was still very new to teaching, my journey had only begun two years previously just before the pandemic hit. It didn’t take much to convince me that I wanted to come and teach there.
So, I began the 21/22 school year at Sands, a cross between a university and a dysfunctional family as Sean likes to describe it. Very quickly I realised I was working at a kind of intentional community with all the personal politics, challenges, rewards and communal meals that come with such an intensely social environment.
Sands is democratic (to a point). Certainly more democratic than the way this country is run. There is school meeting every week where students and staff discuss and vote on various issues both big and small. Sean talks a little more about school meeting here. There were occasions when I would think, hmmm does this really need to be something that the students vote on. I can hear a chorus of young, sharp, confident voices now booing “noooooooo Jules this is a democracy!”
One other notable element, which I often discuss with state-run students when I’m supplying, is that Sands students are free to choose which lessons they go to. I always get a fevered response to that when in the sterile environment of a straight classroom. There is an expectation at the start of the term that if you choose to sign up to humanities then humanities will expect you. A teacher has to plan. It works surprisingly well (there is also a sense of peer bonding. If you’re going, I’m going and so on). There is also more of an emphasis on me as the teacher to make it a space they want to be in. A space they want to keep returning too. The pressure to deliver engaging teaching comes from the students and not upper management as they are the ones who carry out the student appraisal questionnaire.
In my year 8 there were two girls who would come, sit together and just colour in mandalas for the whole lesson. I loved that they felt comfortable enough to be in my teaching environment and learn in their own distinct way.
The culture at Sands also leaves space for how an individual might be feeling on any given day. These are teenagers after all. A student can come and say, “hey Jules is it ok if I sit out today’s lessons?” and this is OK.
One thing that is fundamentally different and clearly a major benefit is the smaller class sizes. But then this is a no brainer. There is a basic assumption about mainstream education that all teachers incorporate into their busy, overworked, psychological mindfuck. That class sizes are far far too big to deliver any kind of quality ‘relational’ education. Yes, a GCSE curriculum can be taught with absolute efficiency leading to good grades, as I witnessed from my awesome and incredibly supportive NQT mentor. But teaching KS3 often feels like pissing in the wind. Delivering a strict regimented curriculum that will suit the learning needs and abilities of 30 13 years olds is farcical. Yes I know all about differentiation — easy to do with 10 students. 30? nah mate… and Oh! and the paper resources. All those dead trees as I teach about deforestation. This irony isn’t lost on many year 7s.
My last year 9 class at Sands had no more than 7 students at any given time. This allows for a free flow of discussion and enquiry. The very heart of education and learning.
Why are we learning?
What do we want to learn about?
Young minds are naturally inquisitive, it’s about harnessing that energy. This particular group of year 9s were often having lively debates and so I suggested they make their discussions into an experimental podcast. I was sworn to silence the second time they recorded after being a little too opinionated on the first go round! ‘No Jules don’t even write your ideas on the whiteboard’.
Before I started my teacher training I was aware of the current state of mainstream education, especially after more than a decade of Tory governance. My three children had all passed through the very same school that didn’t want me back. Whilst my two eldest had had relatively good experiences, my youngest’s time at secondary school, as a hearing impaired teen, had not been very positive. I think she might have had a better time at Sands.
The jump from year 6 to year 7 is far too steep and the majority of students are already on the back foot as they head into year 8. The fun is squeezed out of the learning experience very quickly and uniformity is forced upon these young minds. There is virtually no time or space for teachers to be creative with their teaching. A room full of bored faces is not a good environment for learning and no fun to teach too either.
At Sands I designed my own humanities curriculum in a much more holistic and creative way. I incorporated history, geography, sociology, and mythology into my schemes of work.
By easing the year 7s into bigger concepts interactively, gently introducing topics that touch on disciplines like anthropology and environmental studies, the learning felt fluid, natural and unforced. I also embedded critical thinking at the very core of my lesson planning — surely one of the most important skills to learn today.
This is my biggest take-home from working at Sands.
KS3 needs to be more fluid and project based. Allow for students to explore individually ‘how’ they learn and what brings out their passion. There will always be students who prefer a more structured learning environment; these students can still be taught in a mainstream way. But for others, many who I suspect are neurodivergent, they should be free to dip into activities as and when they feel like it or just simply listen and observe. It works well without the pressure of conformity.
This looser and creative approach to KS3 still requires some kind of formative assessment. But that is something woven into the discussions that take place in the classroom every lesson as we review what we have been learning. That and my carefully made Kahoots :)
However, students do eventually arrive at the narrow doors of mainstream education. It feels like Sands stands, feet apart, one foot on one plate the other on another, as the plates move steadily apart. It does do a remarkable job. When a student gets too that important age around 15 when they start to seriously consider life after Sands, they get their shit together and with a huge amount of support from staff, put the work in to gain the GCSEs needed for that transition.………………………… it’s a formality.
“We need to teach for unpredictability”.
“Creativity equal to literacy”.
“We know three things about intelligence … its diverse, dynamic and distinct”.
“We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we are educating our children”.
Ken Robinson.
Sands gets it. This talk is 17 years old … and still Sands remains isolated in its vision.
I worked a 4 day week the first year (I really dont know how any teacher does a five day week. The emotional labour in any school is a bit mind blowing on top of the actual teaching). When it came to staying for a second year I dropped to two days a week, mixing it up with two days supply in mainstream secondary around Exeter. I did this for two reasons. Firstly, whilst Sands is a beautiful environment, it is a bubble floating in a nice village with an artisan bakery in rural Devon on the edge of Dartmoor; I don’t want to lose touch with the rest of the education system or the world outside of rural Devon. You may see beautiful countryside, I see land enclosures. Sounds harsh I know.
Secondly, it is an emotionally charged, domestic environment. What do I mean by this? Well it’s like a second family home, you simply have to give a lot of yourself. Washing up, hoovering and the forming of close relationships within an 80 strong community of adults and teenagers can be emotionally challenging! On a good day, sitting strumming my guitar on one of the outdoor sofa’s chatting with students in passing was truly lush; but on other days, my dark cloud of existentialism could get the better of me. David Graeber said it best, it is a moral imperative to remain optimistic. I use this as my mantra when teaching teenagers about climate change. As you might imagine the friction between these two states of being in such a close, positively charged, familiar environment was having a serious affect on my mental health, causing me quite a bit of anxiety. It’s a lot easier to mask as a supply teacher in a big mainstream school. As it is, my partner and I are moving away from Devon … Itchy feet innit.
Freefalling once again!
Sands is an amazing school community. I feel very grateful to have had the privilege of teaching and learning in such a creative and experimental environment. It is only through experimentation that we progress.
Prior to working at Sands I hadn’t written a song for near on 10 years… I wasn’t really looking, but something there handed me a whole bunch of new ones. ‘Gulls’ will be the first let loose.
Thank you Sands! I will miss you x
In part 2 I will be sharing some of my Sands lessons.
